Trevor Noah: ‘You Can Be Pro-Cop and Pro-Black’

“America has a problem within its police force,” ‘Daily Show’ host says. “And although it is a problem that disproportionately affects black people, it’s not just a black problem. This is an American problem”

Following the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah spent the opening portion of Thursday’s episode examining the issue of police brutality and the growing divide between law enforcement and citizens. “You shouldn’t have to choose between the police and the citizens they’re sworn to protect,” Noah said.

“Two videos in two days of police fatally shooting two black men who, when you watch the video, did nothing to warrant them losing their lives,” Noah said. “The hardest part of having a conversation surrounding police shooting in America, it always feels like in America, if you take a stand for something, you automatically are against something else. Such a strange world to be in. You’re either a cat person or a dog person. You’re Red Sox or Yankees.”

However, as Noah pointed out, things shouldn’t be so clearly divisive. “With police shootings, it shouldn’t have to work that way. For instance, if you’re pro-Black Lives Matter, you’re assumed to be anti-police, and if you’re pro-police, then you surely hate black people,” Noah said. “It seems like it’s pro-cop and anti-black, or pro-black and anti-cop, when in reality, you can be pro-cop and pro-black, which is what we should all be. It should be what we’re aiming for.”

In the Sterling incident, both officers responsible for the shooting had their body cameras dislodged prior to the incident. “Really? The body cameras became dislodged? Has it gotten so bad that even the cameras are like ‘I can’t be a part of this. I’ve seen enough,'” Noah said. “I call bullshit. Because I’ve seen white-people cameras, and those things never come up.” Noah then showed video of an insane bicycle stunt gone awry, yet the body camera remained perfectly lodged to the rider’s body.

Noah then commented how there was more “outrage” over the gorilla that was shot and killed at the Cincinnati zoo than there was over the deaths of Castile and Sterling, and how the death of that one gorilla has resulted in more widespread changes than all those killed by police brutality.

“That’s for a fucking gorilla! They’re making changes for a gorilla. One gorilla,” Noah said. “It’s the truth. I shouldn’t even be afraid to say it: America has a problem within its police force. And although it is a problem that disproportionately affects black people, it’s not just a black problem. This is an American problem.”

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Noah ended his segment with the Las Vegas Police Department, who in 2011 admitted there was a bias issue and better trained their officers to destabilize conflict. The result: 36 percent less police shootings. “If the police can get their shit together in a city where you can rent a tiger and then get married to a Filipino Elvis Presley, then the rest of America has no excuse,” Noah said.